The planning authority yesterday approved a controversial permit for a new petrol station in the outskirts of Mġarr, which was welcomed by villagers but frowned upon by environmentalists.
The development, recommended for approval, includes fuel pumps, a workshop, a store for agricultural machinery. It will be built on a field in Mosta Road, Mġarr.
The new station will replace the one in the main square.
The permit has been criticised by environmental groups, which said it would cause an eyesore and would ruin “pristine fields” in the area known as Żebbiegħ.
But Mġarr mayor Paul Vella urged the planning authority board to vote in favour of the project, saying it was of “great importance” to the village and its residents.
“We didn’t speak out before but I can guarantee that the Mġarr residents agree with the relocation. Ours is the only main square that opens out into the nearby fields,” he said during a hearing of the planning authority board.
Mr Vella said it was “a pity” that the petrol station would have to be relocated to an area that was outside development zone but the one in the main square was causing great congestion, especially because the number of people using it had increased.
Planning authority chairman Austin Walker asked Mr Vella for the council’s opinion on the proposed site, particularly because it was not within scheme.
“There were other proposals for alternative sites but after a number of studies it went back to that site. It is not ideal, especially because the new petrol station will be at the entrance to Mġarr, but I don’t think there are other places,” Mr Vella said.
The new petrol station will also include a showroom and an underlying basement garage for plant and machinery vehicle storage, which will be built over 2,406 square metres of agricultural land. The original outline permit had been approved in 2006 with a smaller footprint.
The case officer explained that the building would only actually take up 173 square metres, pointing out that the property increased because of a buffer zone, recently imposed by the resources authority, around the fuel tanks.
“While it is not ideal that petrol stations, a potential hazard in village cores, are relocated to outside scheme, with this particular application we were restricted and legally compelled to issue this permit on this site,” Mr Walker said.
The permit was approved with six votes in favour and four against. Board members Judge Giovanni Bonello, Sandro Magro, Franco Montesin and Philip Manduca voted against.
Later, the planning authority said the present site of the petrol station was incompatible with the urban environment and was a health hazard to the local community.
No outdoor storage of any such plant and machinery vehicles would be allowed and, through a public deed, the applicant was bound to shut down and decommission his existing petrol station, dismantle his vehicle servicing garage operation and restore and re-instate a large parcel of agricultural land near the square, which was being illegally used as open storage area for such plant and machinery vehicles,it said.
Heritage organisation Din l-Art Ħelwa condemned the decision, saying it constituted yet another example of misuse of good land.
“Such oversized service and petrol stations have no place in our countryside and are totally out of proportion with the rural highways,” executive president Simone Mizzi said.
Apart from the untenable use of good land, aesthetically, such constructions caused huge blots on the landscape, she added.
Din l-Art Ħelwa said such “kind of insensitivity must stop” and if mistakes were made by previous boards they should not be perpetrated by the present.